Amsterdam: Pakistan let world champions Australia off the hook as they messed up their chase of a modest total and went down narrowly by 17 in the trination cricket series final here today.
Asked to chase 193 on a deteriorating wicket, Pakistan seemed well on course at 154 for 5 in the 42nd over before the critical stand between Yousuf Youhana (43) and Abdur Razzaq (26) was broken and Australia tightened the screws around them.
Pakistan kept bouncing back in the game and showed remarkable spirit even when they two lost two critical run outs off successive balls in the middle of their innings to brilliant work in the field by the Australians.
First, Shoaib Malik was done in by an underhand throw by Andrew Symonds at the non-strikers end and then off the very next ball, the fielder hurled a sharp return to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin to catch the newcomer Shahid Afridi (0) short of his ground.
Pakistan, seemingly cruising at 93 for 3 in the 30th over all of a sudden had five of their top order batsmen back in the pavilion.
But they took the setback in the stride when Youhana and Razzaq were involved in an exhilarating stand.
The two put on 57 runs for the sixth wicket before Razzaq fell to a catch in the deep off Darren Lehmann and then Youhana was wrongly adjudged caught behind the wicket when the ball had clearly come off his thigh pads.
Razzaq made 26 from 33 balls with one four while Youhanas innings of 43 took him 57 balls and contained three fours and a six.
Pakistan needed 21 runs from the last four overs with three wickets in hand but collapsed all too quickly to lose by 17 runs with nearly three overs to spare.
Earlier, Australia put up a gutsy performance on a difficult batting track to make 192 for seven.
Electing to bat on a powdery pitch at the VRA Ground, the world champions were aided by patient batting by Matthew Hayden at the top and a good deal of improvisation by Darren Lehmann and Andrew Symonds in the middle to reach a respectable total.
Hayden made 59, the second half century of the tournament, off 114 balls and hit four fours in one of his slowest innings.
Lehmann on the other hand used the width of the crease intelligently to make a vital 40 that came off 68 balls while striking two fours.
Symonds stamped his class immediately on arrival with a six off Shoaib Malik and the shot was powerful enough to send the ball out of the ground into a nearby canal.
Symonds' batting belied the difficulties faced the by his teammates early in the innings and he needed only 40 balls for his 36.
Shoaib Akhtar picked three for 40 but Mohammad Sami (1-26) and Shabbir Ahmed (1-25) troubled the Australians more.
The start was delayed by an hour and a half but the match was fixed for 50 overs a side, for the first time in the tournament after the truncated series opener and the wash out of two league matches.
But the under-prepared VRA track threatened an abandonment as at times it proved dangerous for batting.
The 100 came in the 33rd over and the runrate hovered at 2.80 for the most part before it picked up towards the end. Only nine fours were struck in the course of the innings besides Symonds' big six.
The Aussies, however, were determined the make the most of whatever little cricket they could get ahead of the ICC Champions Trophy next month.
After the early fall of Brad Haddin, bowled by Sami for 10, Hayden and skipper Ricky Ponting batted their heart out while adding 44 for the second wicket.
Ponting made 25 and was caught at short thirdman while trying to hit through the line.
Damien Martyn was pushed down to Number 6 and Lehmann came ahead. The left hander did well with his footwork to not allow the spinners to settle down to a rhythm.
After adding 61 with Hayden for the third wicket, Lehmann fetched the three-time World Champions 57 with Symonds for the fourth as the runrate began to shootup.
